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The definition of government is the exercise of control or authority over a group of people. The body with the power to make and/or enforce laws to control a country, land area, people or organization.
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a means by which organizational policies are enforced, as well as a mechanism for determining policy. Each government has a kind of constitution, a statement of its governing principles and philosophy.
While all types of organizations have governance, the word government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments on Earth, as well as their subsidiary organizations.

Government & Environment

While there are plenty of global reasons for working toward a cleaner environment, creating an environmentally friendly workplace in local government may produce benefits that you may not have thought of.
Your local citizens are bound to take notice that government staff and elected officials are committed to improving the environment and sustainability. Local governments that actively promote green practices show their citizens the importance of becoming environmentally friendly. The changes provide a healthy model for citizens to emulate and may encourage them to change some of their own wasteful habits at home.
Not only will citizens be inspired by local governments that demonstrate a commitment to environmentally healthy practices, local businesses may get on the bandwagon and make changes within their businesses to operate in a more environmentally friendly manner. As customers or clients of local businesses begin to see the value in green lifestyle changes, they’re bound to become loyal customers of businesses that opt to go green.
Be careful not to overlook the perspectives of the Millennial generation. According to a Nielsen study, up to 72% of consumers aged 15–20 said they were willing to pay more for products and services from environmentally friendly companies.
Benefits to Environmentally Friendly Governments The reality is that local governments that promote a green-friendly culture in the workplace inspire their citizens and local businesses to reduce their carbon footprint as well. The impact of the total effort has an exponential effect that creates a win-win situation for everyone.
The IBM Center for The Business of Government states that there are numerous recent studies and media accounts that show how companies are moving toward green production, with the goal of improving the environment. Such companies are boasting significant financial benefits as a result of their efforts. The changes are proving to be efficient and cost-effective. Most importantly, the impact of their efforts is being enjoyed generally by society.

4 Simple Ways to Create an Environmentally Friendly Local Government Workplace

According to the OECD, it’s relatively easy to develop an environmentally friendly atmosphere in local government offices when you think about categorizing green practices into five distinct areas, including:
  • Energy
  • Water
  • Transportation
  • Food
  • Waste
Things the government can do to help the environment

Here are practical ways to be environmentally friendly in your municipality:

1. Encourage Environmentally Friendly Employee Practices

Coach all employees to be conscious of saving energy. Encourage employees to turn off lights in rooms that aren’t in use, such as storerooms, restrooms and breakrooms.

Instruct employees to turn off computers, printers and power strips at the end of the workday. Ask employees to delay turning lights and office equipment back on the next day until they really need to use them. Make sure that monitors are set on the most energy-efficient settings and eliminate screensavers on computers.

2. Making Environmentally Friendly Changes in Local Government Facilities

Replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescent or LED bulbs. Rearrange office furniture and add window coverings that allow for as much natural sunlight to flood the workspace as possible.
Your breakroom or lunchroom is a good place to start. Replace paper and plasticware with reusable dishes that employees can wash rather than throw away. Add some recycling bins as a visible reminder to recycle. Request vending machine servicers to fill machines with healthy drinks and snacks, such as fruit juices, granola, fruit and pretzels. Provide a water cooler to reduce the collection of plastic water bottles in the office. Healthier eating leads to a healthier lifestyle, and local governments are bound to reap the rewards with employees who take fewer sick days.
Have you checked your cleaning supply cabinet lately? Invest in green cleaning products to keep the office green and smelling clean.
To reduce paper use, set printers to print on both sides. For the times when paper use can’t be avoided, opt for recycled paper. In addition, check out other eco-friendly office supplies, such as refillable ink cartridges and non-toxic highlighter pens.

3. Foster Clean Commute Initiatives

Local government employees often live right in town. Rather than encouraging staff to drive to work by themselves, foster discussions about transportation options such as walking or biking. Perhaps employees might want to ride-share or to take public transportation. Up the ante by offering a “clean commuting” award for employees who practice clean commuting for a specified period of time

4. Software Solutions Help to Reduce the Local Government Carbon Footprint**

Establishing local environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, where focus changes region by region, has become a priority for many local governments, but the hallmarks of carbon reduction remain consistent across locales. Think about taking the office as paperless as possible. iCompass, a Diligent brand, makes this possible with board management software that enables efficiency in creating board agendas and meeting minutes while eliminating paper use completely. The program helps local governments to drastically cut down on excessive ink and paper costs when compiling board meeting books. Last-minute changes are no problem, as public officials can access the latest changes online in real time.
5.Ways to Share Your Environmentally Friendly Efforts Publicly
It’s likely that your efforts to go green won’t go unnoticed. As long as you’re making the effort to create big changes, take the time to promote the benefits of creating an environmentally friendly workplace by writing an informative post about it on your Civic Web Portal, a citizen page that seamlessly integrates with your local government website. It’s a fantastic way to demonstrate to citizens how small changes can generate a big impact on our environment.

Five Ways any Local Governments Can Be More Environmentally Friendly

“Going green.” It’s a concept so often discussed that people often expect a lecture whenever those words come up in conversation. Especially for those working in local government. Protecting your community’s environment through public transportation and recycling programs is commendable, but local governments can also look inward at their day-to-day operations for ways to reduce their consumption of energy, paper, and greenhouse gasses, all while saving money for their organizations.
Municipal governments need to set an example for citizens by making City Hall as ‘green’ as possible. While improving systems that have been in place for decades might seem costly at first glance, Forbes and Business.com both suggest that making the transition to more environmentally friendly processes will save money and enhance productivity. Here are 5 ways local governments can be more green.

1. Make Sustainability a Key Element of Your Community Plan

The first step in building a more environmentally responsible government is setting clearly defined and attainable short, medium and long-term goals. These objectives should maintain a few key characteristics and focus closely on reductions in energy, paper usage, and greenhouse gas emissions. Work closely with elected officials and the public and look at creating a committee to discuss progress towards these goals.
Governments that take more initiative into environmental affairs are seen in a brighter light by the public. In fact, 74% of the adults in the United States believe that the government should do whatever is right for the environment. The first step in the process of environmentalism is to define what “being green” means to your agency. This can include simply reducing, reusing, and recycling whenever possible, or reminding coworkers to make decisions that will lower each of their individual carbon footprints.

2. Implement ‘Green’ Systems

New innovations like tablets and agenda software not only make day-to-day work in municipal agencies faster and easier, but they greatly reduce the long-run impact that we have on the environment. It’s highly recommended that a seminar is held whenever a new product is introduced into your agency in order for people to get comfortable with using new software or tech products.
These systems serve a dual purpose of reducing paper usage, which for agendas and records, in particular, can result in an ROI that far surpasses the cost; but also, can represent a significant time-savings for other staff.

3. Implement an EPP Program

One great thing that businesses and government agencies can do to help lessen their effect on the earth is to look up. That is, look up their supply chain. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing plans (sometimes referred to as ‘green’ purchasing) can reduce the impact organizations have on the environment by purchasing products from suppliers that are more green friendly, have a longer shelf life and are more useful in multiple ways.
A fantastic resource to find products that are EPA-approved for the environment is a program called Energy Star. It is a popular organization that offers advice in green-friendly solutions for almost every appliance your agency will need, and offers training for employees, building energy management programs, and more.
With an EPP plan, the most important thing to do is document your progress. You must be able to understand exactly what impact was made from your individualized EPP from the start. This includes reporting on taxpayer dollars savings with new equipment or processes that have been introduced.

4. Switch to Cloud

Cloud computing means that local governments can utilize the full benefits of a few networked servers, and reduce wasted computer resources. Municipal government employees’ work is often subject to time sensitivity and security, and cloud systems solve that problem. Data can be shared and distributed safely within your own government network.
With a cloud-based system, government employees could have access to all of the documentation needed online and can more easily provide that information to the public, making it easier for citizens to find information online.

5. Follow the Path of Others Setting a Great Example, Then Set Your Own

It can be challenging to come up with new and innovative ways to help make your local agency environmentally efficient. Looking at other local governments that you admire is one of the best ways that any agency can see what works.

Conclusion

Set clear goals for your organization to follow, educate your employees, implement an  plan, update your tools and try switching to a cloud-based system, all while learning from others and making examples of yourselves. Together, with all of the combined effort of local municipalities, we can make the world a little bit greener.

Emerging economies worldwide

Government buildings often lie at the heart of our communities and form a big part of our everyday life. From museums and police stations to government offices and gardens, the demand for these services makes commissioning them a highly important task.

We believe that government construction projects should be more than simply functional structures. They should be iconic developments that future generations can instantly recognize. The demand for such high-quality government facilities is rising, whether this is to meet regional expectations or to satisfy the number of emerging economies worldwide. At Alpin, we help our clients to realize all their visions by creating low carbon and efficient buildings that the whole community can be proud of for decades to come.

Our government construction services (Advisory Development Services) help you create truly sustainable projects. Our mission is to make the construction industry more sustainable and to ensure the wellbeing of people. To achieve this, we use our extensive experience.

Commissioning

We help you achieve better government construction results with our commissioning services. You get a thorough understanding of the resource and energy savings you can make before you start the construction phase.

Building performance analytics

Want your new or already operational building to perform optimally? In that case, our building performance analytics services will help you achieve those savings.

BIM

Our BIM (Building Information Management) and Virtual Design Management services will help you visualize your project before you start working on the construction phase.

Green building consulting

Our green building consultants help you achieve green certifications like LEED, WELL, and Estidama.

Sustainable Master Planning

Our sustainable master planning services help you plan and develop successful communities.

Specialist Training

We work together with you to find solutions to all your sustainability challenges.

Alpin Innovation Labs (AILA)

AILA helps you keep at the forefront of what’s happening in the government construction space. Our solutions are some of the most innovative in the development and construction industry.

Our portfolio includes some of the most interesting development and construction projects in the governmental sector. These include:

  • The Abu Dhabi Accountability Authority is a government construction project that consists of the construction and maintenance of the HQ for Abu Dhabi Accountability Authority and which includes three basements, a ground floor, mezzanine, seven floors, and a roof. Alpin helped the project achieve a 2-Pearl Mostadam rating. Among others, 23 units were commissioned, 30 materials reviewed, and 40 clashes were detected before construction.
  • ADNOC New Corporate Headquarters, which consists of a build-up area that is expected to be about 190,000 square meters, including a 342m office tower, podium and atrium, and an underground parking block. We helped the project achieve 15% energy savings and 40% water savings, as well as increase fresh air by 31%
  • The Qatar Museum Authority – QMA Offices, which we helped achieve LEED certification. The project achieved a 31% increase in fresh air, 28% energy savings, and 42% water savings.

Our Case Studies

ADNOC New Corporate Headquarters

Bee'ah Headquarters

Saudi Aramco Research Center

See More

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US

“On the whole, I was delighted with Alpin’s team, their professional and friendly manner and, above all, a pragmatic consultancy approach aimed at maximizing the value of BREEAM for all stakeholders. I have no hesitation in recommending Alpin to support you in your next sustainability project or initiative.”

Ted Young,
Al Zahia Project Head on behalf of Sharjah Holding Co. PJSC and Majid Al Futtaim Properties LLC

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